New gold-miner Aurora Empowerment Systems is having to confront the double challenge of staving off labour union criticism and simultaneously being forced to deal with water pollution fears at the company’s newly acquired Grootvlei gold mine on the East Rand.

Mining Weekly was unable to obtain a response from Aurora MD Zondwa Mandela and left a message on his cellphone, which was unanswered at the time of going to press. Mandela is the grandson of former South African President Nelson Mandela.

The National Union of Mine-workers (NUM) has alleged that Aurora underpaid its East Rand workers in February and has not paid them at all yet in March.

National spokesperson Lesiba Seshoka said that NUM had hoped that, on taking over the operation from the liquidated and delisted Pamodzi Gold, Aurora would improve the working and living conditions of workers, but that had not been the case.

A reliable source close to the Grootvlei mine reports that acid mine drainage (AMD) from Grootvlei is going into the Blesbokspruit untreated.

The source says that there is also concern that the mine’s vital underground pumpstation may flood, as took place in 1996 with dire consequences for surrounding mines.

There is also concern that the mine’s steel piping could be exposed to harsh AMD corrosion.

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